a dangerous world
by Quivorian
Summary: When Selina Kyle accepts the job to steal a painting housed in Bruce Wayne's offices atop the Wayne Tower and decides to start working as Wayne's personal assistant to achieve her objective... she doesn't realize something important. Bruce Wayne is not the man Gotham City thinks he is and she has just entered his dangerous world. (Bruce/Selina)
1. a job to do

**AUTHOR'S NOTE: Probably not the best idea to have three ongoing multichapter fics at the same time, but forgive me. This idea came by and threatened to leave if I didn't act on it, so I did. The chapters will not have a uniform length and I don't know when I will update this again but I promise I will. The title of the fic is subject to change. The story might be more dark and mature than my others. Enjoy.**

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"… _Auctor Van Derm's famous painting 'The Lady' was bought by Bruce Wayne today in a private auction held in the Gotham Royal Hotel. The colorful painting which depicts Auctor Van Derm's wife, Amalia Van Derm, shortly after their marriage was paid an 'undisclosed amount' by Gotham City's resident billionaire, says a source from the auction. The source, whose identity will not be revealed, also added that the 'undisclosed amount' was easily upwards of a $100 million and high enough to place 'The Lady' in the top 20 of the world's most expensive paintings._

 _Asked about his purchase by journalist Vicki Vale, Bruce Wayne commented: 'Both Auctor and Amalia are part of the Wayne family, and they are my direct ancestors. The purchase of this painting was simply an act bringing them back into where they should be: with The Wayne family.' He refused to comment on the amount he paid for it._

 _The private auction also had other notable guests, both from Gotham City and out and most of them are said to have participated in the proceedings. Mr. Oswald Cobblepot secured himself 'The Penguin', artist unknown. Silvia St. Cloud, Ferris Boyle and Thomas Elliot were in attendance though whether they bid on anything is not known. The CEO of Queen Industries and Star City billionaire Oliver Queen made the winning bid on on a set of antique arrowheads reportedly recovered from an island in the North China sea. Lex Luthor, CEO of LexCorp from Metropolis was in the, too; having won the bids for more than one piece of art. Eminent scientist and professor of theoretical physics, Dr. Harrison Wells was also in the crowd along with Dr. Ray Palmer of PalmerTech. Carol Ferris was seen with her husband, Hal Jordan, bidding and winning the painting 'Oa' by artist Alan Scott. Victor Stone…"_

— — —

 _Filthy, rich dogs,_ thought Selina Kyle as she scanned the online article detailing a private auction which had taken place a month ago. _Too much money, and they don't know what to do with it._

Closing the tab with the piece on the auction, Selina started reading another article detailing the history of 'The Lady', which was her sole reason for being interested in the auction at all. The article detailed the history of the painting along with some details about the artist. Auctor was supposedly the descendant of Sir Gawain of the Arthurian legends. The painting was supposed to contain a clue as to the location of some treasure or other.

Selina couldn't see any clues, but she could admire the light strokes that composed the picture and she could admire the petite woman's beauty. Amalia Van Derm, seated in what looked like a garden of some sort, was sporting a graceful smile with a twinkle in her light green eyes. Her golden hair was neatly pinned with a jewelled brooch and she wore an emerald dress that matched her eyes.

Clues or not, the painting was beautiful. That much was obvious.

Minimising the internet browser on her old laptop, Selina pulled up her encrypted email program and opened the last email she'd received. There was no address, no information about the sender and the message itself was two lines, four words. She read them again.

 **'The Lady'**  
 **$150 mil.**

Though it contained no more than fourteen characters, the content need not have been clearer. It was a job offer. And she had to agree that it was a very, very, _very_ tempting offer. All she had to do was steal the painting and hand it over to whoever it was and she would be paid over a hundred million. She thought about it for the whole of thirty seconds before deciding that, _no._

 _No._ She wasn't going to let this chance go by.

She clicked on the reply button. The text window popped up. The typing indicator blinked at her. Selina smiled to herself as she carefully typed out her reply.

 ** _yes._**

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 **A/N 2: There is another fic in this universe, named 'a bleeding heart', which will have a Harley Quinn/Floyd Lawton and Harley Quinn/Pamela Isley pairing and be, much like this fic, more dark and mature than the rest of my work. Dunno when I will work on it, though. Till then, read and review.**


	2. terms and conditions

**AUTHOR'S NOTE: Right, as I promised, I've updated this work. The next chapter will introduce the Bruce Wayne of this AU but we will not meet him until the fourth or fifth chapter. Taking a break from this, I am going to go over to my League and Wayne Bros fics. In the meantime, just for the sake of it, I have a small... game: try to find as many DC Universe references I've made in this fic so far. Find all of them and you will be, erm, rewarded!**

 **For other story-related stuff and general me-ness, follow me on Tumblr, where I go by, well, quivorian.**

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Washing her face in the little sink in her apartment's washroom, Selina Kyle stared into the mirror for a good long minute. Dark green eyes stared back at her. Though she knew she was looking at her own self, she couldn't recognise the girl she once was in the mirror image. In her eyes that seemed to gaze out at something far, far away, she saw a various mix of emotions reflecting – frustration, worry, desperation… fear. She wasn't exactly enjoying life.

A small _meow_ from the doorstep broke through her thoughts. Wiping away the water with a hand towel, Selina turned. Her cat, Isis was standing at the threshold, stretching and fixing her little cat eyes on her own. Isis meowed again, hungrily and Selina meowed in reply, smiling to herself.

She walked out of the washroom and headed to the little kitchen area where she found Isis' feeding bowl. Selina washed it quickly and put it down. Isis walked over and waited expectantly until Selina dug through her cupboards to find the cat food for Isis' dinner. It took a while, but Selina found a little container containing the last of Isis' food she had bought the previous week.

"Looks like we're going to need to go shopping again, girl," she muttered, half to herself, as she kneeled down and filled Isis' feeding bowl.

Then she stood up, set the container on the kitchen counter and walked towards her bedroom. As she walked past her little desk, she saw that her phone's notification light was glowing, indicating a missed call. Selina picked the phone up and jumped onto the bed. Settling herself in as comfortably as she could, she unlocked her phone and glanced at the notifications. It was a private number, which meant she couldn't call back. She had to wait until they saw fit to call her again.

She knew who it could be. Her _client,_ the one who had sent her the email about the Wayne job. The call was probably so that the job could be confirmed and then she could be given the details.

Selina sighed and tossed the phone to the side.

It rang just as it hit the bed.

"Wow," she murmured. Picking the phone up again, she touched the green button and answered the call. "Hello?"

"Hello, Miss Kyle," A low voice spoke on the other end. "You accept the job?"

"Yes," she replied, nodding.

"That's excellent," the voice on the other end sounded mildly amused, "I will send you another email with the particulars of the job. Considering the security of the place that currently houses the painting, I will give you sixty days – that is, two months – to finish the job."

"Great," she replied, her mind already reviewing various plans to successfully steal 'The Lady', "Two months is just fine."

"Once you finish the job and hand over the painting at a place I will determine, you will be paid your part of the compensation."

A look of puzzlement crossed Selina's face. _My part?_ "Er, what do you mean, 'my part'?" she asked.

"Your part of the compensation," the voice repeated as if she should already know what it meant. "Why…" Trailing off, the voice paused for a long instant. "Oh… right. I am sorry but the email I sent you was a forwarded mail. The one-hundred-and-fifty million reward… that is not for you."

"What?" Selina asked, confused.

"Yes… The price stated on the email is what is being offered to me by my client for getting the painting for him, I'm offering you a fraction of that price – two percent, to be exact – for doing the legwork for me."

" _Two_ percent?"

A feeling of betrayal coursed through her before the rational part of her realized an unfortunate fact. She was a criminal, dealing with other criminals. In the dark underbelly of Gotham City, the only thing that mattered to every single lowlife and thug and powerbroker and hitman and thief… was money. Money that lined their own pockets. Money that was earned with as little work as possible in illegal ways.

She did the calculations in the head. _Two percent of a hundred-and-fifty million was… three million._

"Yes, two percent."

Selina countered, crossing her fingers. " _Four_ percent."

"Four?" The voice sounded amused now, as if her counteroffer was a joke. "You want six million dollars for this job?"

"This _job_ ," Selina started, her voice taking an edge, "is to infiltrate one of the most secure buildings in Gotham City, waltz into office of the most powerful man and steal a painting of his ancestor that he bid for and won in a private auction. _This_ job," her voice was raising now, "is only worth a damn if I was going to earn something more than the pittance that is _three million._ Find another damn person to do the job."

Selina took the phone off her ear and was about to terminate the call.

"Miss Kyle," the voice spoke before she could press the button. "You are not in my top ten list – much less being the _first_ choice, trust me. I contacted a few others before I had to stoop down to choose you." Selina tamped down her anger and waited for the man on the other end to continue. It was never wise to make unnecessary enemies. "Leonard Snart is in prison, which is a most unfortunate thing since he was my first choice. The rest of my list was comprised of men who utilized force instead of stealth to obtain the painting."

"Then why don't you choose one of them, if you so desperately want the painting?" Selina spat at her phone.

"I will, if you fail."

"Didn't you hear me earlier?" Selina spoke with disdain in her voice, "I said I was not going to steal the painting for you."

"I did hear that, Miss Kyle," the voice said, with equal disdain. "I simply chose to ignore it. You are a drug-addict who currently works in a strip club, taking on jobs as a cat burglar on the side because you simply _do not earn enough."_ The words stung. Selina swallowed down a rising knot in her throat and willed the tears that were threatening to spill over to vanish. "In addition to this, you have also decided to care for… what's her name now… I swear I remembered it…"

"Shut up!" Selina whispered quietly.

"Ah, yes, Holly, wasn't it? Holly Robinson? The little streetwalker?"

"Don't you dare speak ab–"

Her words were drowned when the voice on the other end started speaking again, completely ignoring her. There was a sneer in the voice now. A tinge of superiority. "You want to make sure that poor little girl doesn't prostitute her life away… you want to have a place for yourself in this world… You want all of this, Miss Kyle, then you need the money to make it happen. Tough job or not, this is probably the highest you have ever been paid for anything. Unless of course…" Pausing, the man on the you don't sell your body, do you?"

The tears welled over. Selina was crying now as the man continued menacingly. "I'm sure you don't. I even heard rumors that you were still a… chaste and pure girl. It matters not. Five million dollars. Take it or leave it. There are other thieves in the world and people who actually know to take an opportunity when one arises. I'll contact them. I'm sure between you and Holly you can make enough to survive. Who knows… maybe I'll be one of–"

Selina couldn't let him finish the sentence. Wiping at her tears and taking a deep breath, she interrupted. "I'll take the job."

There was a long pause before she got a reply. "Good, I'll email you the details, then. Goodbye, Miss Kyle."

With that, the phone call was disconnected. Selina took the phone from her ear and saw that her hand was clutched around it so tightly that her knuckles had gone white. Her hand was trembling, her heart ached. Whoever this client was, he knew everything there was to know about her and he had that advantage of knowledge. _Why did I even…_ She didn't understand what had made her think that an offer of hundred-and-fifty million could ever just fall into her laps. The world wasn't a colorful place and good things never happened.

She wasn't going to find another opportunity like this arise. With five million dollars, she could do a lot. Help herself, maybe rent a better apartment in a better part of the city and most importantly… set Holly up with a better life than the one the poor girl had endured so far. She'd do the job alright, and she'd do it well.

'The Lady' was going to be hers.

Selina shook her head and rubbed at her face with her sheets till her eyes were dry, then she leaned back into the bed. Reaching to her side, she lifted the table lamp on her bedside drawer and retrieved one of the little green and red packets that was taped to the base of the lamp.

Centering it on her palm, she stared at the packet. A lush, red logo of a lip print was stamped on a light green background. In the middle of the upper and lower lips, there was a small bit of text that read 'Ivy's Kiss'. Selina ripped open the packet and tapped it. A little red pill fell out into her laps. She picked it up and examined it under the muted light of her lamp before popping it into her mouth.

Selina laid down on the bed, pulled the tearstained sheets over her body and waited. Ivy's Kiss took a while to take a effect. When it did, Selina slipped away from her world of troubles and let herself relax.

— — —

Someone pawed at her face.

Selina blinked once and shut her eyes tight. There was quiet lull somewhere in the back of her clouded head. She could smell rose petals and see green and feel the cool air of springtime in a meadow. The mix of sensations, although they were starting to fade, were pulling at her. Calling her back to them.

Someone pawed at her face again.

Selina opened her eyes.

The reality of her situation came crashing down and the last of the effects of Ivy's Kiss dissipated at once. She was sprawled in her bed in her apartment. Her pillow was tearstained and outside, Gotham City's night sky – dark, pitch-black and heavily clouded, with no room for even a little moonlight – reflected her feelings.

Curled up near her head, Isis meowed before pawing at Selina again.

Selina heaved a long sigh and straightened herself up. She lay motionless for a minute, quietly wondering about her next course of action regarding the painting. Usually, she'd case a location where whatever she was stealing was housed but there was no casing the Wayne Tower.

Obviously, there were no people who she could contact for insider information. She briefly wondered whether she would be able to entice someone on the inside to share information but even if she promised to give her whole payment of five million, she was sure whoever it was probably earned more. She wasn't above using her looks to seduce and extract information but right now… after the man on the phone's piercing words, Selina wasn't going to do that.

"What can I do, Isis?" she asked her cat.

Isis meowed and starting walking away from her, only to stand atop the keyboard of her old laptop for minute and then curling up on it.

Selina smiled. "Thank you, gorgeous." She pulled the laptop towards her and carried Isis and gave her a kiss. Setting Isis besides her and sitting up, she turned the laptop on. "Isis," she said, knowing full well that cats didn't comprehend human speech. "If you're ever in trouble… ask the internet."

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 **A/N 2: The other fic in this world, 'a bleeding heart', will not start anytime soon. Anyway, I don't have much to say today so I'm just gonna say the usual read and please-oh-gawd-please leave a review? Meh. Doesn't matter if you don't but I'd like a review. Also, remember the DC Universe reference game!**


	3. before the interview

**AUTHOR'S NOTE: I'm back with another chapter for 'a dangerous world'. Still working on the next chapter of the Wayne Brothers. In the meantime, I am trying to get some work done with my IRL novel. Wish me luck. References are present in this chapter as well.**

 **Also, follow me on Tumblr. I'm quivorian there as well.**

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 _Destiny._

Selina Kyle didn't believe in destiny. She didn't give credit to the concept of good luck. In her twenty-one years of life, she hadn't had many things happen to her that stood as proof to the fact that there was some magical force that made good things to happen to people.

But, after about an hour of careful searching around the vast internet and one short phone call later, she wondered if maybe… just maybe, good luck existed.

She had just found her way into the Wayne Tower.

— — —

Thrust into a position of power at the age of eighteen, Bruce Wayne had built an empire out of his family's already huge assets and businesses. Spreading his influence to all corners of Gotham City, he had done a lot for his city and by the age of twenty-eight he had taken Wayne Enterprises to levels it had never been to before: a worldwide leader in many things.

Bruce Wayne worked hard.

But, all of Gotham City knew, he played harder.

Selina, like every other person who didn't live under a rock, knew all about Bruce Wayne's exploits. Huge, huge parties. Dating models and ballerinas and singers and artists and businesswomen and then moving on, without any regrets, either on his side or the girl's. Buying and renovating three different high-end clubs around Gotham. Selina had heard that he once bought out an entire hotel, over the course of dinner, just so his two foreign dates – girls-of-the-day – could take an unplanned swim in a decorative pool in the view of all of the hotel goers.

All of his behaviour was like catnip for the paparazzi and 'journalists' who took great pleasure in covering the life of Bruce Wayne. None of them, Selina had noted, ever cared much about the actual work he did. Selina Kyle, for all her beliefs that Bruce Wayne had far more money than he knew what to do with, also believed that he was not a _complete_ fop. _Maybe three-quarters of one._

Now she sitting in the forty-seventh floor of the massive Wayne Education building, dressed in a jeans and a shirt and high heels, and looked beside her at the many girls who were all seated. They were dressed far more formally than her and had an air of eager nervousness about them. A separate crowd of guys, she knew were all seated and nervous on another part of the building.

Selina's plan to infiltrate the Wayne Tower was simple and it had come about completely by chance. After reading all she could of Bruce Wayne on various sites, most of them dedicated to the _playboy_ side of his life, she had decided to just take a peek at the Wayne Enterprises actual website.

That's where she had read something which gave her her way in.

Bruce Wayne was offering a chance for students in Gotham to earn a chance to apprentice with any one of the many businesses that Wayne Enterprises owned. One lucky male out of all the entrants, if her had the necessary qualities, would get an honest-to-god job as Bruce Wayne's executive assistant. One lucky female, on the other hand, would fill in the position of personal assistant.

This was what she was aiming for. For the past week, after her research on Bruce Wayne, she had read up as much as she could on every bit of knowledge that may be relevant to working as a personal assistant. Despite the rotten circumstances of her life, Selina had always been a quick and passionate learner.

About half an hour passed. Twenty girls had been called in to one of three interview rooms and seven out of them had come with good news. They were now had an year-long apprenticeship with either the Wayne Foundation or the Wayne Medicine or WayneTech or one of the other Wayne-businesses. The other thirteen had been offered chances to come back later.

The girl who had sat right beside her, Jen, was in the group of girls who had gotten an apprenticeship. Before she had left, Jen hugged Selina and had expressed delight at having gained a place in the Wayne Tower itself, with Wayne Industries. She had also added that she would be glad to work alongside with Selina, wished her luck and then left to celebrate.

A woman in a power suit walked over and scanned the crowd.

"Selina Kyle?"

Selina stood up. "That's me."

"You're up. Follow me."

Selina took a deep breath, exhaled and feeling a knot of nervousness rise at her throat… thinking both about the deception she was performing now in the offices of the arguably most powerful man in Gotham and the far more important job – that of stealing a priceless painting – that was at stake, she walked after the woman.

 _Maybe it was a_ little _risky…_

 _But then again,_ Selina comforted herself, _what is life without the risk?_

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 **A/N 2: Like I said, follow on Tumblr. Read. Review. Tell me if you like it. Also, the DC references game is still ongoing. There are two new references in this chapter. Have fun.**


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